The present invention relates to movable room divider panels and wiring therefor.
Open office planning is based on the use of a plurality of movable room divider panels to divide a large open space into a plurality of different work stations. The area can thereafter be modified to accommodate different working conditions by simply rearranging the room divider panels.
One problem with the scheme is that of providing electrical wiring to the various work stations. Local codes and local inspectors often do not approve of getting power to work stations by running long lengths of electrical extension cords through raceways in the panels. To pass codes, the wiring must be permanent in nature with the wiring itself being inaccessible to the user. Often this requires locating an electrical outlet tombstone at virtually every work station location. This of course interferes with the desired mobility and rearrangeablility of the open face office room divider panel system.
One panel system is available with built-in wiring. Each panel is fitted with wiring and outlets and when the panels are joined, connection is effected between adjacent panels. The wiring is located in an enclosed raceway which is not accessible in the field.
A drawback to this system is that it is expensive and inflexible. You might buy some panels with power and some without, only to find that when you later rearrange the system, you don't have the right combination of power and nowpowered panels. It is of course expensive to buy all of the panels with power.
Another problem with the available system is that it is difficult to branch. In other words, where three divider panels come together, there is provision only for passing power between the two panels and special external adapters are required for branching off into the third or fourth panel.